


The Wolf is Found

by Ladyhawk_lhflu



Series: The Two Sides of the Moon [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alpha Remus Lupin, Established Relationship, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Werewolf Mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:28:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21773710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladyhawk_lhflu/pseuds/Ladyhawk_lhflu
Summary: How do marauders keep track of their moon? With a map!
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: The Two Sides of the Moon [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1486598
Comments: 2
Kudos: 108





	The Wolf is Found

"James, *what* are you doing?!" Remus asked as he watched the bespectacled young man crumple another piece of ruined parchment.

Before he received a reply, Remus was pulled out of the Gryffindor common room and into their dorm room. "We need to know who is in that tunnel on the night of the full moon. We nearly got caught last month because Filch was patrolling right outside the tunnel," Prongs hissed quietly. 

James looked around and noted that Frank Longbottom was not around. He was probably with his girlfriend Alice in the Astronomy Tower. Apparently, they actually watched the stars instead of snogging. James wasn't sure why.

But the Marauders' safety, especially the safety of the lycanthrope in front of him, was top priority for James Potter. So he showed his friend the crumpled paper. "I can't cast a proper Homonculous charm on the parchments."

"Prong, we're in Hogwarts. It has defense charms around it!" Remus exclaimed with an exasperated tone. "Don't you pay attention in History of Magic?"

James shrugged. "Not usually."

"You have to plot a space to use that charm properly, and Hogwarts is unplottable!"

Prongs' eyes went wide. "Padfoot said that I needed to practice more. He didn't tell me the spell was bloody impossible on Hogwarts ground! He, of course, is doing all the location research, the easy part."

"Research for what?" Remus asked, suspecting that a prank was about to be cast on him somehow. The other Marauders, including his mate, mostly refrained from pranking him or each other. Mostly. But their mischievous natures sometimes got the best of them. 

"A map, you git!" James usually saved the insults for Sirius, but right now he was frustrated. He was rather sure that Moony's cooperation was their only way out of the predicament. Moony was their problem solver. The Homonculous charm had been a problem for *months*.

But just then, the reason Sirius kept it a secret from their problem solver showed itself. "Prongs, that's dangerous! What if one of the teachers gets a hold of it?"

James let out a sigh of relief. That issue was tame, and solvable. It was when Moony started worrying about losing limbs or imminent death that James started worrying himself. "We have a solution for that, but we need your help."

Padfoot be damned. James would just buy extra chocolate so that Sirius could appease his mate. 

He stared into the hazel eyes in front of him. They stayed hazel, which meant that he only had to deal with Remus. The wolf either thought the map was a good idea or didn't care about it. And when Remus shook his head with a small smile, James knew that the other teen was ready to join in on this endeavor.

"To plot the unplottable, you have to set the spell to *only* work in the unplottable place. You're trying to plot the tunnel and the Shack too, aren't you?" Remus asked with an air of certainty that somehow still sounded modest.

"How do you know that?" James exclaimed. 

"Because you haven't gotten it to work since you started trying at the beginning of term! I found those bloody messed up parchments everywhere!" Remus shoved James onto a chair. This time, his eyes turned amber. The next sentences gave James the reason why. "I could see the area around the tunnel on almost every parchment. Be a little less obvious with your mistakes or *we will all* get caught."

"Sorry, Moony." James didn't often bow his head to the alpha. That was Padfoot's job. But he was the guard. And as the guard, he had messed up. So he let his head inch down for a moment.

James looked up when a strong hand patted his shoulder.

"Let's try that charm again, shall we?" Remus smiled at his friend.

James nodded and grabbed another piece of parchment on which the pieces of Hogswarts ground and the surrounding area were set. Luckily, Sirius had found a way to duplicate the map pieces on numerous parchments. Or this would have been much harder that it currently was. And right now it felt bloody impossible.

Except Moony was here now. And in his eyes was the wolf. James suspected that with those two editions, this map was about to get much simpler.

====

"Prongs, we plotted out the...you told him! Why did you tell him?!" Sirius stared at where James and Remus had their heads bent over one of the map parchments.

Remus looked up, amber gleaming in his eyes. So Sirius stopped in his tracks. And bowed his head.

The animagus sighed when he was scolded lightly. "This needs to be done right, Padfoot. A map that leads people to the Shack is dangerous."

Sirius dared to look up and meet his mate's eyes. "I told Prongs that you wouldn't let us do it."

Remus waved Sirius over. As soon as the animagus was settled at the lycanthrope's feet, he felt a hand bury itself in his hair. He leaned into the touch, needing it in ways that made little sense to him. He had never felt totally comfortable with his family, ever. So contentment was a new sensation for him. It first started with Prong's acceptance and an open door to his family's home. But the wolf and Remus had multiplied the feeling, altered it to make it something he needed to keep breathing. 

The feeling so overwhelmed him that he barely heard Remus say, "A map *is* a good idea, as long as it doesn't lead anyone to the wolf. You need to know when it's safe to head for the tunnel. And it would make planning the pranks easier."

Sirius leaned his forehead against his mate's knee. "Good, Wormtail will be glad to know he has a reason for sneaking into the Slytherin common room."

Remus blew out an agitated breath but conceded, "Yeah, we need to know where Malfoy and his group are, especially on the full moon." 

"And Snivellus. He'll whine to a teacher, or even Malfoy, if it suits him."

"You need to be kinder to him, Sirius." But somehow, Remus couldn't say the words he wanted to. That they really needed to leave Snape alone. There was something dangerous in the other teen. And he had the same haunted look as Sirius at times.

James just encouraged Padfoot's dislike of the Slytherin. "You should see the way he looks at Lily. It's disgusting. I bet he wants to do awful things to her. We can use the map to keep him away from her."

Remus sighed and let the matter drop. He knew he wouldn't get them to stop. Sirius seemed to think that there was a spirit of strength within him, maybe something that the wolf gave him. But Remus knew that he was just a survivor. He bent so that he did not break. Sometimes, like that very moment, he believed he bent too far.

But these were his friends. They took on the burden of his curse. And his mate...well, he never expected to find a real mate, someone he could actually love. He didn't even know how to begin to pay them for their generosity. So the least he could do was let them blow off some steam.

\----

By the end of the day, the Marauders were able to completely plot the castle with the Homonculous charm. They even had time to write one essay each for the next day (well Remus wrote all three he needed, and Peter only finished a half).

So they settled down to sleep right before Frank Longbottom came in. He didn't need to know that only four of the five beds were actually being used. It kept the room calm. But behind a well-placed muffling spell on the bed by one of the windows, things were not calm.

"You and Prongs take too many risks, Sirius," Remus exclaimed worriedly. "I don't want you wandering towards the Forbidden Forest at night. The map isn't that important."

"I haven't been able to plot the edge that borders the school grounds properly. That edge is considered part of the school, so we need it plotted to keep the map accurate," Sirius snapped back. "This is for your safety, Moony."

"Just keep that piece off the map! Nobody sane will hide at the edge of the Forest. There's a spider's nest there." Part of Remus realized that Sirius was right. They needed to account for everybody in the school by mapping all of it so that the three animagi knew when it was safe to head for the tunnel to the Shack. But another part worried about his mate's impulsivity and anger towards his family and anyone like them.

The wolf surged in Remus at that thought. The wolf knew how to keep his beautiful one from getting out of control. But Remus yanked himself back before the wolf could take over. He could hurt Sirius by letting the wolf control him. Probably not physically (the wolf had promised to not do that while they were human), but mentally, that was possible. Remus could see the effort it took his mate to hold himself together some days. The days when his parent sent him a letter, or Regulus glared at his brother as if he were scum instead of a wizard.

The anger was coming off of Sirius in waves right at that moment. He was glaring at his mate as if the lycanthrope was his mother. And irrationally, that anger just kept building. The dark-haired teen didn't even realize it. Remus could tell. Sirius thought he was justified in his plan to go to the edge of the Forest (most of Remus couldn't disagree with that, actually), so he was going to shove away anyone in his path.

Normally at this point, Remus would appeal to James for help. But he knew James was already sneaking to the Astronomy tower because he had gotten Lily Evans to meet him there on some made up pretense; an Astronomy assignment, Remus supposed.

So Remus sighed and nodded at his mate. "But I'm going with you," he said, determined to find a way to keep Sirius out of detention, or worse.

So Sirius helped his mate dress before slipping on his own jeans and t-shirt. Then they grabbed the map hidden in James' trunk and headed to the edge of the school.

Sirius was quiet as they made their way. They had to be more careful than usual that night. James had the invisibility cloak, so they had to rely on their ingenuity to stay out of sight of the teachers patrolling the halls. But once they were at the spot that Sirius needed to map, he exploded.

"Why are you always pushing at us, Moony? We're doing this for you! Why are you even a Marauder? You're always telling us to stick to the rules. Well, that's not what being a Marauder is about. It's about breaking the rules! We're breaking the rules for you, for Merlin's sake!" Sirius glared at Remus as he waved the map at him.

"The pranks are fun when nobody gets hurt!" Remus growled back. "But you wanted to set stinging traps for the Syltherins in the dungeons two weeks ago. That could send someone to the infirmary. That's not fun."

The lycanthrope then took a deep breath to calm himself. He needed Sirius to understand his anger, or they both would get out of control. "But this is about you, Padfoot, not me." He waved his arm to indicate the forest in front of them. "This place is dangerous, especially for somebody on their own. What if one of the huge spiders bit you? What if that green skull appeared in the sky?" Remus shivered. There was something awful happening in the wizarding world outside the school. The teachers weren't saying much about it. But they all knew that those green skulls meant death.

Suddenly, Sirius pushed Remus back, closer to the castle. He looked spooked. "Then let me get this done so that I can make sure you're safe."

The wolf pulled at Remus. The wolf couldn't protect against the green skulls. Nobody was quite sure who or what was causing them; they just knew someone was always dead under them. But the wolf *could* protect against the creatures of the forest. Most were frightened of the wolf, and would not challenge it.

So Remus let it take hold of him, for his mate's sake. He let the wolf push Sirius to his knees. He let the wolf grab the map. Even though the wolf was in control, Remus could see what was happening without interference. He would have to take control back at the right moment to help with the map.

The wolf's loose hold allowed Remus to gasp as he watched his name on the parchment flicker to 'Moony' then back again.

A moment later, he looked up into his mate's surprised face. "My name never changes, no matter what form I'm in," Sirius said with a touch of awe.

"But you're always you inside," Remus mused. "I'm not."

Sirius nodded, still on his knees. Then he looked straight into his mate's eyes. "You only bring out Moony when you're worried about what I do. When you want me to listen."

"Yes," Remus said softly. "Or when I'm afraid for you. I need his help to keep you safe." He looked out into the Forest and tried not to imagine hairy spider legs coming at them.

Sirius looked over his shoulder and sighed. "Let's get this done. We can have more fun in our room than out here."

Remus helped Sirius to stand, then kissed him gently. "I was hoping you'd see it my way."

They laughed softly, then pulled out their wands so they could plot the area on the map. They worked together, making a difficult task that much easier. Then they hurried back to their room.

For the wolf wanted to take care of his beautiful one. And he wanted some help from the one who could bring out love in their mate's eyes.


End file.
